Curiosity rover laser zaps Martian rock

NASA has launched the first interplanetary war by attacking Mars with a high-power laser beam for “target practice.” Some are blaming the “mohawk guy” at JPL, shown in disguise in this NASA photo. No word if Mars plans to return fire….

OK, we admit, it’s a remote spectroscopy experiment to determine the composition of a rock curiously called “Coronation.” The energy from the laser excites atoms in the rock into an ionized, glowing plasma, NASA said. ChemCam catches the light from that spark with a telescope and analyzes it with three spectrometers for information about what elements are in the target.

Curiosity hit the fist-sized rock with 30 pulses of its laser during a 10-second period. Each pulse delivers more than a million watts of power for about five one-billionths of a second. (Credit: NASA JPL)

Comments (9)

Microbial life has been shown to be amazingly resilient. And if there is an attempt to find life on Mars that is an implicit statement that is might be possible. Given that, I hope the rover has been Totally decontaminated. Otherwise it might leave a few microbes, return at a later date, and find a thriving “Martian” colonly ;’)

For those wondering, the rover is expected to live at least 4 years, but will continue working indefinitely (until it breaks down), similar to a car. The RTG power source uses plutonium, with a half life of 87 years (although the thermocouples degrade, so the output decreases somewhat faster). How little power it can last on I don’t know, but as the power output decreases, more and more is turned off, so it begins to lose its usefulness as a scientific instrument after a while.

I understand that the Rover Curiosity will have a 2 year mission on mars, but does anyone know the maximum time it could continue to work (does it have Nuclear or other power to last 5 years for example?). This rover seems a lot less likely to get stuck….I hope it gives them years of faithful service and data. Maybe just hard to be patient, but seems like this mission is going slower than I was expecting….

Main Function: Provide power to the rover
Location: Aft side of the rover
Size: 25 inches (64 centimeters) in diameter by 26 inches (66 centimeters) long
Weight: about 99 pounds (45 kilograms)
Power Source: Uses 10.6 pounds (4.8 kilograms) of plutonium dioxide as the source of the steady supply of heat
Electrical power produced: slightly over 100 watts
Batteries: 2 lithium ion rechargeable batteries to meet peak demands of rover activites when the demand temporarily exceeds the generator’s steady electrical output levels
Reliability: NASA has used this power source reliably for decades, including the Apollo missions to the moon, the Viking missions to Mars, and the Pioneer, Voyager, Ulysses, Galileo, Cassini, and New Horizons missions.
Safety: Built with several layers of protective material to contain its fuel in a wide range of potential launch accidents, verified through impact testing. Manufactured in a ceramic form, is not a significant health hazard unless broken into very fine pieces or vaporized and then inhaled or swallowed. In the unlikely event of a launch accident, those who might be exposed would receive an average does of 5 to 10 millirem. The average American receives 360 millirem of radiation each year from natural sources, such as radon and cosmic rays. — info courtesy of NASA web site — go to

They bop till they drop. NASA tries to milk out whatever they can get from them. Some have been quite remarkable. Me personally, I’d rather see more effort to easier targets, like a moon base, or space stations. Mars is a tuff nut to crack. It’s popular though, and that’s good for business.